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What Should You Do if You Smell Mildew In Your Car?
When you think about buying a car you are usually thinking about all of the good things that will come along with having a new car in your life. But in reality, cars can have leaks that can allow water to get inside that can make the inside smell like mildew. If you’re like most people you don’t want the inside of your car smelling like mildew, the good news is that getting rid of mildew smells in a car is easy enough as long as you can find what is causing the mildew smell.
So how do you get rid of mildew smell in a car? To get rid of mildew smell in a car you need to pinpoint what is causing the mildew smell in the first place, this could be a leak allowing water in the car or mildew that has built up in your car’s AC vents. Once you’ve pinpointed the cause of the mildew smell you can then work to fix it so that it doesn’t keep occurring, allowing you to get rid of the mildew smell.
Now that you know what can cause mildew smells in your car you now need to investigate what is causing the mildew smell in the first place. After you’ve fixed what’s causing the mildew smell you can then get rid of the mildew smell once and for all.
Find The Source of the Smell
Mildew smell in a car is typically caused by moisture or humidity that gets built up inside of the car. To get rid of the mildew smell you first need to find the source of the smell and then work to prevent the mildew smell from reoccurring in the future. Common areas for mildew buildup are on the floorboards, in the trunk, from the AC, and on the headliner around sunroofs.
However, just because you spot water or mildew in any of those spots doesn’t mean that is where the water leak is occurring. You may have a leaking windshield or gasket around your door that is causing water to get inside of the car.
What Areas To Check For Leaks
Below are the most common areas that can allow water to leak into your car that you should check first.
1. Leaking Water From Windshield
Water can also leak in from your windshield
Water can also leak into your car from your windshield. If the windshield wasn’t properly sealed when it was installed it can allow water to leak into the car and onto your floorboards causing water to pool up on the floorboards.
Since water will eventually lead to mildew you would want to get this issue corrected so that water doesn’t keep leaking into your car and causing the inside to smell like mildew.
2. Plugged Drain
Cars have drains incorporated in them that are designed to evacuate water away from your car that can become plugged with debris. When this happens it can cause water to get into the inside of your car causing mildew and mildew smells.
Check the drains in your gaskets to make sure that they are working properly and not plugged by any tree leaves or any other debris.
To make sure this is not leading to water and mildew inside your car you’d want to check the rubber seals leading to your front windshield and rear window to see if you notice any water that has pooled in either area.
3. Floorboards
Mildew smells are also frequently caused by water and mildew buildup on the floorboards of cars. If you’ve ever accidentally left your windows down or cracked during a rainstorm you know that rain can cause a mildew smell in your car.
Car windows that won’t go up all of the ways or have leaking gaskets can allow water to get in through the car door and allow mildew to form the floorboards of the car. You may also have a leak from your windshield that is allowing water to leak into the car and down onto the floorboards.
4. SunRoofs
Sunroofs are a nice luxury feature to have installed on your car but can be the source of leaks as the car begins to age. Gaskets around the sunroof or plugged drain holes can allow rainwater to leak into the headliner of your car which over time can cause mildew to form.
If you notice that your headliner is wet and has stains around the sunroof or you smell a musky smell from your headliner you likely have a leaking sunroof causing the mildew smell.
Usually, the solution to fix a leaky sunroof is to have the gaskets surrounding the sunroof repaired or replaced. Sometimes a leaky sunroof is caused by a plugged drain hole that is causing water to be backed up and seep into the interior of the car.
On some sunroofs, they have a drain hole that is designed to allow water to drain away from the sunroof gaskets. If this drain hole gets plugged by debris like falling leaves from trees it can cause water to start to leak into the sunroof causing mildew on your headliner.
Fix the Water Leak
Once you’ve pinpointed how water is getting into your car to create mildew the next step would be fixing the water leak so that water doesn’t keep leaking into your car and causing more mildew. Whether it be a leaking gasket or a plugged drain hole make sure that you get the problem fixed so that it doesn’t keep allowing water inside of the car. After you’ve fixed the problem you are ready to move onto the next step of removing the mildew from your car.
How Do I Get Rid of Mildew Smell In Car Vents/AC?
The easiest way to get mildew smell out of the car vents is to spray a disinfectant into the air conditioning inlet to allow the disinfectant to kill the mildew inside of your air vents. You can use a specialized disinfectant but Lysol disinfectant is probably the cheapest option. You need about half a can of Lysol to complete cleaning and removing mildew out your air vents in your car.
I’ve detailed the process to take to clean out the air/AC vents in your car in my other article why does my air conditioner smell? Check it out for instructions on how to use a disinfectant to clean out your car air conditioner air vents.
How Do I Get Rid Of the Mold/Mildew Smell Inside My Car?
Now that you’ve pinpointed how water is entering your car that is forming the mildew and fixed the problem you now need to remove any leftover mildew using a mildew remover/cleaner.
1. Test The Fabric for Colorfastness
CLR says that their mold and mildew cleaner is safe to use on fabrics but I’d still test it on a small inconspicuous area first to make sure it’s not going to change the color of the headliner or floorboard fabric before spraying it on the mildew areas.
2. Apply Mold and Mildew Remover
After you’ve ensured that the mold and mildew cleaner you’ve chosen won’t damage the color of the fabrics in your car you can then apply it to the mildew surfaces and then rub it into the mildew affected areas with a brush or rag. Make sure that when you are spraying mold and mildew remover that you are in a well-ventilated area with the windows open ideally with a fan blowing air away from you. You don’t want to breathe in chemicals during this process.
Give the mildew remover/cleaner a few minutes to allow it to do its thing and then wipe away any remaining mildew or mildew cleaning solution that remains.
3. Dry The Area
Once you’ve removed the mildew from your car you’d want to let the area dry out and try to soak up any access mildew remover with a clean rag or towel. If it’s a sunny day park your car in the sun with the windows cracked to speed up the process. If you own a hairdryer you can also use that to speed up the drying process. Just make sure that you dry out the area that you sprayed mildew remover on otherwise it can cause a stain.
4. Vent the Car
Now that you’ve dried out the inside of your car you will probably want to allow any smells from the mildew remover to vent out of the car before taking it for a drive, as breathing in chemicals is not good for your health.
After letting the area dry out and venting the car you should have been able to remove any mildew or mold from your car. As long as you’ve fixed whatever was causing water to leak into your car in the first place you shouldn’t have to keep worrying about more mildew forming in the future.
5. Floor Boards
Having water leaking into the floorboards of your car is never good. Hopefully, if you notice water on your floorboards it was just a small leak or you accidentally left your window cracked for a short time that caused the floorboards to get damp.
If you have standing water in your floorboards you’d want to think about removing the carpet in your floorboards to allow everything to dry out, otherwise, you risk allowing mildew and mold to grow underneath the carpet as mildew and mold like to grow in moist dark places.
To learn more about what you should do if your floorboards are completely soaked with water check out the Youtube video below.
What Does Mildew Smell Like In A Car?
Mildew smell in a car would smell just like it does everywhere else. Mildew has a musty smell that’s tough to get out of fabric without washing it. If you’ve ever had a piece of fabric or clothing item that’s been wet for a while it will start to produce a musty smell like the smell of mildew. Allowing your clothes in the wash to sit for too long before drying them will also produce the same sort of smell.
How Do I Get My Car Smelling Better Again?
The cheapest option to get your car smelling better again is buying an air freshener that goes over your air vent. That will at least cover up any smells inside of your car as long as the air freshener still has some life left. Eventually, the oil inside of the air freshener will run out and it will need to be replaced. 
With that said Febreeze spray is meant to cover-up smells by working on the chemical level to surround odor molecules. It then covers up the scent using synthetic fragrances. You could try spraying febreeze on the fabrics of your car to try to remove any mildew smells. To buy some Febreeze on Amazon.com click here.
How Can I Get Rid of Mildew Smells In My Car?
The best but most expensive method of removing smells from your car is by using an ozone generation machine. Like I mentioned above if you have a water leak causing mildew to form in your car you’d want to get that fixed but if you fixed the water leak and still can’t get the mildew smell out of your car you may want to buy an ozone generator to remove any other smells from your car.
But using an ozone generation machine is by far the most effective way to remove smells from your car and is what dealerships use to remove cigarette smells from vehicles. The Ozone generator I linked one of the cheapest on Amazon and but will still be able to effectively remove cigarette smoke or any smoke smells from your car (link to Amazon.com).
To learn more about how ozone generators work and how to properly use one (you don’t want to breathe in the ozone particles while the machine is running) check out the video below.
Sources:
https://www.febreze.com/en-us/safety/science-and-chemicals-in-febreze